Well, that was pointless. As we and many others predicted, Glenn survived his encounter with a mini-walker horde in the alley. We finally see the full scene of Glenn escaping under a dumpster while the walkers pull Nicholas's guts out, but the explanation didn't make this development any less stupid. In fact, it makes even less sense than before, on both logical and narrative levels.

Let's start with the obvious: there's absolutely no way Glenn wouldn't have been bitten. Nicholas wasn't shielding his whole body, just his torso, and while the walkers may have taken a minute or two to get to his head, his legs were right in front of all the walkers that were having trouble reaching Nicholas. Sorry to be gross/morbid, but there was food right in front of them, and they would have started munching on his legs right away. It makes no sense that Nicholas got disemboweled and Glenn walked away without a scratch.

But it's even more egregious that the writers so blatantly tried to trick the audience. They deliberately mislead everyone, crafting this tragic ending to a beloved character, and then cheated their way out of it. They took Steven Yeun's name out of the opening credits, devoted an entire episode to Maggie's grief, and now Glenn's back without any narrative consequences. Maggie and the baby will be fine (until Negan arrives, at least), Steven Yeun is back in the credits, and Glenn hasn't become disillusioned by his brush with death as a result of his desire to be a nice guy. As we see when he refuses to leave Enid behind, he's just as noble as ever. So there was absolutely no point to any of this; it was just an exercise in emotional manipulation. The Walking Dead has always straddled the line between eliciting emotion and manipulating it, but I don't think they've ever toppled over the line quite this flagrantly.

Speaking of Enid, it looks like she isn't one of the Wolves after all? She's alone, "just surviving somehow" as always, or so it seems. I suppose it's possible that Enid was spying for the Wolves before the attack and left by herself out of shame, rather than leaving to join them, but it's difficult to tell. After this whole Glenn debacle, I wouldn't be surprised if the writers took the lame way out on this one too.